The Nominees Ranked By Which Should Win:
- Thomas Schnauz for AMC's Better Call Saul - "Bad Choice Road"
- Gordon Smith for AMC's Better Call Saul - "Bagman"
- Jesse Armstrong for HBO's Succession - "This Is Not for Tears"
- Peter Morgan for Netflix's The Crown - "Aberfan"
- Chris Mundy for Netflix's Ozark - "All In"
- John Shiban for Netflix's Ozark - "Boss Fight"
- Miki Johnson for Netflix's Ozark - "Fire Pink"
Better Call Saul is one of the best written shows on all of television right now. It's staggering and almost unforgivable that the voters have largely moved past recognizing its brilliance. It has two nominations in this category. That is such a blessing given the snubs elsewhere. "Bagman" and "Bad Choice Road" are tremendous hours of television as well. They are brutal and exhausting while each providing the actors with some significant and weighty material. Both could easily have been Emmy-winning tapes for the actors involved. This category may be the only place where they can get the recognition and honor that they deserve. That urgency is felt. This show needs to be rewarded somewhere this year. If not, it would simply be baffling. Yes, Succession and The Crown are well-written shows too. But again, they are well embraced by the voters this year. They have numerous nominations with the likelihood of picking up several wins. Meanwhile, I've never really known Ozark to be a well written show. It receiving three nominations here is absolutely a surprise. That's about all the analysis I can provide for the show though. I'd much rather spend time talking about how tremendous Better Call Saul was during its fifth season.
The Nominees Ranked by Which Will Win:
- Jesse Armstrong for HBO's Succession - "This Is Not for Tears"
- Peter Morgan for Netflix's The Crown - "Aberfan"
- Gordon Smith for AMC's Better Call Saul - "Bagman"
- Thomas Schnauz for AMC's Better Call Saul - "Bad Choice Road"
- Miki Johnson for Netflix's Ozark - "Fire Pink"
- Chris Mundy for Netflix's Ozark - "All In"
- John Shiban for Netflix's Ozark - "Boss Fight"
Even though I just spent a whole paragraph talking about how deserving these Better Call Saul nominations are, I don't think either of them are likely to win. A surprise could still happen because of their high caliber quality. That would be very rewarding. However, this truly does feel like a battle between Succession and The Crown. They have the broad support from the voters across the board. Plus, they won't be saddled with vote splitting as a result of multiple nominees. That probably hurts Ozark in this category. The voters probably don't know which contender is the one everyone should rally behind. Moreover, the Succession and The Crown nods could serve as a recognition for the entire seasons that they have produced this past year. Both episodes were written by their respective showrunners. They were definitely the peaks in terms of critical acclaim for the most recent seasons. Jesse Armstrong is even the reigning champion in this category. That win was well deserved and allowed the show to walk away with at least one major award in its first season. Now, it has numerous opportunities in many categories where it didn't compete a year ago. The Crown has been rewarded for its directing and acting. It will probably win writing one of these years. That could very well occur here. Again, either of those contenders winning would be reasonable.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions? Let me know in the comments below!
